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The oldest indoor shopping mall in the US has been repurposed from stores to tiny homes. The Arcade Mall, located in Providence, Rhode Island, has a waiting list for the forty-eight micro lofts.

The main level of the mall contains boutique shops and the housing units are on the second and third floors. The resulting effect is a calm indoor ‘avenue’ of shopping and residences.

Developer Evan Granoff had a few challenges through the process, including the issue of cooking facilities. When city ordinances didn’t allow for cooking facilities due to the size of space, Granoff registered the property as a co-housing facility, which allowed for convection microwaves. Residents find it to be an acceptable compromise as they can easily purchase meals on the lower level of the mall or create simple menus within their space if they are home or dine in one of the many local restaurants in the Providence downtown area.

Quite the interesting endeavour. It’s certainly worth the few minutes to watch the video at the end of this post.

People talk about saving historic buildings, but often the only way to save them is to make them economically viable. – Evan Granoff

The concept of adaptive reuse – repurposing unused buildings into usable facilities- has been around for some time. Developing standing buildings – such as warehouses, mills and distilleries- into homes not only minimizes urban sprawl, it reduces the waste created by demolishing and constructing new structures. There are issues that can occur; modernizing electrical, plumbing, and internal structure while ensuring any harmful chemicals such as asbestos are not within walls coupled with zoning and local bylaws that will allow for changes to the original building. Not an easy task. But if you look at some of the links below, you’ll see some pretty amazing spaces with incredible architecture.